Friday Morning Coffee: Lehigh Valley Dwellers Not High On Corbett In New Poll.

Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers. It's no secret that the Lehigh Valley is one of the state's great political bellwether regions. Public opinion in the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton MSA often provides a glimpse of the voters' mood statewide.

So it may come as no surprise to learn, five months into his administration, Valley-dwellers are deeply divided on Gov. Tom Corbett's job performance.

A new Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll out this morning shows that not even four in 10 adults (39 percent) approve of Corbett's job performance, compared to 31 percent who disapprove. Twenty-nine percent of the 459 respondents were undecided.

The regional findings reflect the statewide mood as well. In an April 28 Quinnipiac University poll, 39 percent of state voters approved of Corbett's job performance, compared to 37 percent who disapproved. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) were on the fence about the Allegheny County Republican.

"His numbers are fairly mediocre if you're looking at someone in the early months of his administration," Muhlenberg pollster Christopher Borick said yesterday of the survey, which was conducted from April 18 to May 9. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.

"The view on Gov. Corbett is mixed at best at this point," Borick concluded.

Once again reflecting the statewide mood, Valley residents are deeply opposed to the Republican governor's proposed cuts to higher education, with 72 percent saying they strongly or somewhat oppose reductions to the state's public colleges and universities.

Sixty-four percent of state voters in last month's Quinnipiac poll said they opposed the administration's proposed cuts to higher education.

The majority Republican state House, it should be noted, is set to vote next week on a budget plan that restores some funding to higher education by carving funding out of public welfare programs.

Mirroring statewide opinion, 57 percent of area residents favor a severance tax on natural gas drillers, compared to 34 percent who oppose it. Ten percent of area residents, many of whom live downstream from Gasland, had no opinion.

That compares to the 69 percent of state voters who favored such a levy in last month's Quinny poll, compared to 22 percent who opposed it.

This week, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, introduced a bill imposing a $10,000-per-well impact fee on drillers, with enhancements for gas prices and the volume of the gas extracted.

The bulk of the money raised by the fee would go to county and local governments affected by gas drilling, with some money set aside for statewide programs and communities that abut those where drilling is taking place.

Scarnati's bill puts him at odds with the administration. In an appearance near Allentown last week, Corbett said he would oppose any measure that sends impact fee money to Harrisburg. Talks over the fee are almost certain to be wrapped into negotiations over this year's state budget. Corbett, as everyone and their dog knows by now, opposes a severance tax.

3. Local governments say they want the right to publish their legal notices exclusively online, bypassing a requirement that they be published in newspapers, our friends at Capitolwire report this morning. Unsurprisingly, newspapers don't want to give up this lucrative income stream. The House Local Government Committee held a hearing yesterday, where lawmakers heard testimony from both sides.

4. The House GOP's budget amendment slashes state funding to the arts, Capitolwire also reports this morning. But it's not clear how this proposal would affect funding for the crayons that GOP lawmakers used to scrawl this ill-conceived proposal.

5. A growing number of Pennsylvania's school districts appear to be considering layoffs and eliminating programs such as summer school and full-day kindergarten and raising taxes by more than the rate of inflation to help address significant cutbacks in state aid that are nearly certain, according to a survey released Thursday. According to the AP, 68 percent of the districts that responded are considering layoffs of instructional staff, compared with 11 percent that actually did so in this fiscal year, while 31 percent are considering eliminating full-day kindergarten, compared with practically none in this fiscal year.

You Say It's Your Birthday Dept. Congratulations go out this morning to Harrisburg attorney Marc T. Levin, whose band, the amazing HotWing Jones, releases its new CD with an event at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center tomorrow night. Additional greetings to Philly's own Dom Giordano and Mitch Vidovich in the office of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey.

On The Capitol Ideas iPod This Morning. It's Friday, so it's time for the weekly Friday Playlist. Regular players know the rules: Hit shuffle on your personal music player and post the first 10 results in the comments. As ever, we'll go first.

Friday's Finally Gratuitous Soccer Link.Manchester United manager Sir Alex Fergusonmay take his players off Twitter in the wake of this week's dust-up between star striker Wayne Rooney and an online critic who was looking for a scrap, the Guardian reports. Sigh ... it's always something with Rooney.

OK. That's it for now. We'll be back later today with more news and updates.

Beatles- do you want to know a secret
The Belle Stars - Iko Iko
Creed- One Last Breath
Andrea Bocelli- What Child Is This
J.Geils Band- Centerfold
Howard Jones- New Song
Erasure- A little respect
Nirvana- Lithium
George Thorogood- Move it on over
Hiroshima- Circle of friends